Waterfowl display available at museum

Jeff Allen, a friend of Billy Starks, a local hunting enthusiasts and duck call designer, decided to present a collage display of photographs and information on Starks and presented it to Starks at the unveiling at the museum.

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By Bill Shrum, bshrum@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Stuttgart Daily Leader - Stuttgart, AR

By Bill Shrum, bshrum@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Posted Mar. 7, 2013 at 3:14 PM
Updated Mar 7, 2013 at 3:16 PM

By Bill Shrum, bshrum@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Posted Mar. 7, 2013 at 3:14 PM
Updated Mar 7, 2013 at 3:16 PM

STUTTGART

As visitors of the museum come for the first time or return for a visit, they will be treated to a new display that was unveiled, Friday, March 1, in the waterfowl exhibit at the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie.

Jeff Allen, a friend of Billy Starks, a local hunting enthusiasts and duck call designer, decided to present a collage display of photographs and information on Starks and presented it to Starks at the unveiling at the museum.

"I wanted to do this tribute to a person who makes those duck calls by hand," Jeff Allen, a hunter from North Carolina, who has been a visitor to the Grand Prairie for over 30 years, said. "I think the duck calls are like folk art."

Allen said Starks, by making the duck calls by hand and by not mass producing them by machine, gave them each a personal touch and flair.

"I think it is well deserved and I think he deserved recognition of some kind," Allen said. "I wanted something nice and permanent."

"I was very surprised and very appreciative of Jeff, who wanted to do this," Starks said. "He had a little help from my son, Kenneth."

The display depicts Starks’ influence on others as they have hunted, visited and enjoyed the Grand Prairie through the years.

"I am self taught and just decided one year I wanted to make my own duck caller, the Rebel," Starks said. "It was nothing special I thought, just something I wanted to do."

Starks, who has been duck guiding for over 50 years, said that duck hunters were constantly asking him about his duck call and if he made his own.

"I began in the late 1960s and still use that first duck caller I made to call ducks to this day," Starks said. "It is not a business, it is strictly a hobby."

Starks, who began making duck calls with Charles Marchand, said he began making them there because Marchand had a place to make the duck calls and he observed him as Marchand made his duck calls.

"It is an honor to display our new photo exhibit and narrative at the museum on duck call maker and craftsman Billy Starks," Melanie Baden, director of the museum , said. "Stuttgart's nostalgia and tradition reaches thousands every year, and this new display is just another indicator of how deep those traditions and customs go," Baden said. "We are proud to exhibit them at our museum."

For more information on the display at the museum,contact the staff at (870) 673-7001.